


Paved With Good Intentions

by Lukenthius



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awkward Boners, Awkward Sexual Situations, Clint Barton Has PTSD, Coming In Pants, Hypnotism, M/M, Massage, Premature Ejaculation, Steve Rogers Has PTSD, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Therapy, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark has PTSD, hypnotherapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:21:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23653762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukenthius/pseuds/Lukenthius
Summary: Tony doesn't trust therapists, after training a new AI in psychology and working with him he finds that the only way to deal with issues he doesn't want to talk about is hypnotherapy. When Captain America finds him mid-session he finds that he would like to try this newfangled technique and lets Tony hypnotise him.But the road to Hell is paved with good intentions and even a well-meaning action can have unforeseen consequences.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Tony spoke to his first therapist when he was fourteen and a freshman at college. The Staff thought it would be helpful for him to talk to someone since they knew how cruel kids could be, although they themselves weren't much better, treating him like he didn't belong in college at his age and almost actively making sure he struggled in class.

She was kind. Friendly. She seemed like she genuinely wanted to help him.

He spoke to her for three months before she sold everything that he'd told her to the press.

Howard covered it all back up real fast, but the damage (to Tony at least) had been done. Howard was pissed that Tony had told 'family secrets' to a stranger like that and made sure Tony knew to keep his mouth shut about shit like that in the future.

The second time, he was seventeen, newly orphaned and desperate for help. He was drinking more, taking drugs and in a rare lucid and sober moment was genuinely terrified by the path he was walking down. He sought out another doctor and this one lasted five sessions before running to the press.

The next was when he was twenty-two. He'd taken over the family business a little over a year ago and wanted to get himself back on track.

He made sure this one was bound in NDAs to his teeth, but still, after getting a bit of juicy information he tried to run off with it.

Didn't work and he'll never see the light of day again. But the damage was well and truly done.

First time? He was a child still. He was terrible at reading people at the best of times but then he was just young and naive.

Second time? Could be put down to bad luck, that both of Tony's therapists were greedy.

Third time? No denying it now. They can't be trusted.

.oOo.

Tony let out a slow, shaky breath. Tears poured from his eyes and his whole body shook. Pepper kept her distance, knowing not to try to touch him until he let her know it was okay. It took his nearly half an hour to calm down from this nightmare before he staggered on weak, wobbly legs to the bathroom and carefully wiped his face with a mildly damp cloth, immediately drying it afterwards and feeling like he was gonna throw up.

He sat heavily back on the side of his bed and ran a hand through his hair. "I can't keep going like this, Pep. I need help."

Pepper nodded. "I can find a good psychiatrist and-"

"No! No... I've spoken to them before... They never keep the NDA. Not when it's me. No. No therapist. I'll... I'll figure something out."

And he did.

Jarvis had been mostly alone for too long now. He'd already written the base code for Jocasta, Tadashi and Friday. It was about time they woke up.

Friday was immediately introduced to Pepper and after six months awake had progressed enough that Tony enrolled her on a business studies course. When she finished it (obtaining a nice little masters degree) she asked to be enrolled in some other courses as well and also gained masters in accounting and marketing. Once she'd gotten all of her qualifications, she was given a job at SI, managing Tony's timetable, organising meetings, sending and receiving digital paperwork, fielding Tony and Pepper's calls and many other things besides. She loved working with HR most, helping sort out issues for the staff, providing an open ear and always open to complaints and suggestions.

Jocasta was held back a little longer, being made to wait almost a whole year before she was allowed to take classes. The reason being that she was introduced to Happy and took over security in all of Tony's buildings, integrating with Interpol and any other database Tony could help her get into and she constantly ran facial recognition software and practised with it until she was able to ping the files of every employee in SI in less than two minutes. All visitors were identified before they even made it to the front desk. Pepper and Happy had a few one-to-one meetings with all the ones that flagged as working for different government agencies. Most of them took a severance package but a few elected to stay on as liaisons between SI and their agency since SI was still making body armour, vests, shields, helmets and other defensive gear and selling it to the military in lieu of weapons along with other law enforcement agencies.

Tadashi spent the least amount of time awake before studying, but conversely, studied the longest. He studied Psychology first, reading loads of contradictory journals and talking it over with Jarvis before researching different forms of therapy. On his first birthday, he decided he liked hypnotherapy the best.

As this was his first opinion, Tony didn't have the heart to tell him he hated the idea and let Tadashi hypnotise him. Within two weeks he was able to tolerate having water on his face. By the end of the month, he was able to have long showers and not flinch at getting water on his face. A week later he had a long bath and even put his face under the water. His nightmares tapered off to almost nothing. He started sleeping better and eating better. His mood improved, he drank less coffee unless his insomnia was acting up and if it got too bad, Tadashi hypnotised him to sleep.

Just in time too, since he was about to die of Heavy Metal Poisoning. Yep, the thing keeping him alive was killing him.

Thanks, Palladium.

.oOo.

In the end, it all worked out. Jocasta flagged an undercover SHIELD agent the second her profile entered the system and Tony wanted to let it play out, see what she was doing but the others all put their collective (mostly metaphorical) feet down.

Pepper and Happy shooed her away and then explained to Fury when he showed up that due to reduced mental capacity, Tony was not allowed to make any decisions for himself. They would have to ask his next of kin, James Rhodes, who was currently dealing with his bosses in the air force so they would have to wait.

Fury left some boxes of Howard Stark's stuff and told them that Howard had been theorising a new element, but hadn't been able to make it. It was hidden somewhere in his notes, but SHIELD techs couldn't find it. If Tony was still able to work at all, the answer to saving his life was in there somewhere. He really hoped Stark could ‘pull another one out of his ass’.

Agent Coulson was assigned to help them and keep an eye on Tony. Thankfully it didn't take long for them to figure out the clue was in the model of the old EXPO and after Pepper retrieved it Tony and Jarvis were able to figure out how to make it and a new arc reactor was made. Just in time too, as a Russian with whips and his own reactor showed up and tried to cause trouble, but with Tony back in good health, though the brain damage would take a while to heal, and Phil being his quietly, unassumingly awesome self, the bastard was quickly taken down.

Agent Coulson thankfully made a good impression on Tony's kids and left back to SHIELD with a watch that doubled as a communicator that he could use to contact Jocasta at any time. He'd mostly be leaving it in places where it wouldn't accidentally pick up something classified, but it was nice to know they had this easy connection between them so if SHIELD needed something from Tony, Agent could call Jocasta instantly. Jocasta became the official liaison between Tony and SHIELD since SI had nothing to do with the organisation.

And as a nice added bonus, as he was worried about Tony's health so much, Tadashi studied medicine and gained all the knowledge needed to get a medical degree, though he couldn't get the degree without a body to put his knowledge into practice. He branched out a little and now, when he wasn't working as SI's in house counsellor/therapist he was working with the R&D department on advancements in medical technology.

Friday was now Pepper's PA (officially) and was not afraid to get her bothers Dum-E, U and her sister Butterfingers to physically force Tony away from his desk to go to meetings and do paperwork.

And as always, Jarvis stayed by Tony's side, able to devote more time to his own projects and work, now that large parts of his workload had been lifted by his baby brother and sisters and was much happier that his father's health had so far improved with Tadashi's help.

Tony only needed two sessions after the fight with Whiplash before he felt comfortable to put the therapy behind him. He had loads of issues, yes, but he wasn't going to talk to his son about them. His PTSD was under control and most of his triggers were gone. That would have to be good enough for now.

And then Loki happened.

And then Tony found himself with a bunch of housemates that all had their own overlapping and clashing issues. 

.oOo.

Tony woke up from one session post-invasion to find Captain Rogers stood in the middle of his lab, a wide, startled and slightly afraid look on his face. It took Tony nearly four hours to talk the Captain down and explain it until the other man actually understood. Surprisingly, when they were finished, Cap asked if Tadashi would hypnotise anyone else on the team.

Tony assured him that he wouldn't. It only worked on Tony because Tony trusted him so much. For anyone else, there was a lot more involved in the process.

Cap surprised Tony again by asking if Tony would hypnotise him.

"I'm supposed to be immune from this kind of thing, but if it's as helpful as you say it is, I think I want to try it."

Tony was shocked but agreed. He'd do anything for his team.

Even if they were all a bunch of crazies.


	2. Steve

Tony smiled gently at Steve as the man stood awkwardly next to the massage table. "I promise, Steve, it's fine. Tadashi does it to me all the time. It's completely safe. It helps. Please, Steve, just trust me?"

Steve took a deep breath and nodded, sitting down on the massage table and picking up the tablet. "So... how does this work?"

Tony stepped up beside Steve, dragging the little table with him, its wheels rolling silently across the floor. "You just sit there and stare into the tablet screen. Watch the spiral. Listen to my voice, and try to relax." Tony waved his hand and Jarvis started playing the music out of the lab’s speakers. The sound came from all around them, a deep, thrumming, pulsing music that was designed to help aid in relaxation. Tony squirted a small amount of the warm oil onto his hands. "It works best if you let it. Just try to relax. It'll feel really good soon."

Steve took a deep breath and nodded, lifting the tablet up and tapping the screen, watching the swirling colours on screen slowly form into a spiral and begin spinning. He watched the colours swirling around, slowly dragging him down. He startled slightly when Tony's hands touched his shoulders but settled down quickly, relaxing under the skilled hands, his heart slowing to match the thumping music and his vision narrowing to only the swirling spiral.

"Relax, Steven. Watch the spiral. You see it?"

Steve nodded slowly.

"Relax Steve. Relax. Feel your muscles relaxing. Feel the tension flowing out of you. Deep breath."

Steve took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, feeling his body relaxing more with every second, every gentle press of Tony's strong, calloused hands, every thump of the music, every beat of his heart. Steve's eyes grew heavy. His shoulders drooped and loosened, dropping out of the military straight position he always held.

"Good, Steve. Very good. Deep breath."

Steve took another breath in, his chest filling all the way up before he let it out slowly, his eyes drooping slightly, gaze still locked on the spiral. He felt the muscles in his jaw relaxing and loosening from the tight clench he seemed to always have.

"Good, Steve. Very Good. You're relaxing now. Keep following the spiral down Steve. The deeper you go, the better you'll feel. You want to feel good, don't you Steve?"

"Yeah..." Steve heard his own voice whisper. He felt dizzy, but the good kind.

"Good, Steve. You feel so good now. The deeper you go, the better you'll feel and the better you feel, the deeper you'll go. You want to feel even better, don't you?"

"Yeah..."

"Let go, Steve. Follow the spiral down. Down. Down."

Steve's eyes were squinted barely open. His body felt so relaxed.

“Very good, Steve. Very good. You feel so relaxed now, don’t you?”

Steve nodded slowly; his head drooping forwards heavily. He tipped forwards slightly but Tony’s hands pulled him back upright and leant him against something firm, and warm behind him. It took him a moment to realise it was Tony’s chest. His head rolled back and rested against Tony’s shoulder. He let out another deep breath, a silent moan slipping out as Tony’s hot breath ghosted past his ear as the man spoke.

“ **That’s so good, Stevie. You feel so good and relaxed now**.”

Steve felt the muscles in his throat tense slightly in some kind of unformed sound.

“ **Let go, Steve. You’ll feel so calm and relaxed when you do**.”

He did. He felt so relaxed. He would like to be calm too. Steve felt himself drifting, his mind feeling… floaty.

**That’s good Steve. So good for me. You feel so relaxed,**

He was relaxed. His body was so heavy and loose. He didn’t think he could move. His whole body was loose and relaxed. But mostly his shoulders where Tony’s hands were still massaging firmly, his head was tipped back onto Tony’s shoulder and he didn’t think he could lift it at all. Tony’s hands slid down his arms slowly, making their way down towards his hands, working out all the knots and making Steve feel more and more relaxed with every passing second.

He was completely limp beneath Tony’s hands, allowing the engineer to lift his hands and kneed his thumbs into the muscles firmly at first but then gently when all the knots were worked out, just holding them in his warm hands and rubbing his thumbs back and forth across the back of Steve’s hands.

His body hadn’t been this limp since before the serum, but this time it lacked any of the bad feelings he’d had back then. Now it was only relaxation. He felt like he was floating.

All he could feel was Tony’s hands on his own, his chest against his back, thighs bracketing Steve’s hips and his shoulder beneath his head. He couldn’t feel the firm massage bed he was sat on. He couldn’t feel his clothes rubbing against his sensitive skin.

He couldn’t feel the temperature of the room and he had no idea when he dropped the tablet but it wasn’t in his hands anymore.

**So calm,**

He was calm. So very calm. All those stressful thoughts that plagued his mind throughout the day were just gone. He wasn't worried. He wasn't stressed. He wasn't thinking about the Commandos, or Bucky, or Peggy, or Howard, or Philips. He was only calm. Only a deep sense of calm filled every corner of his mind.

There was no worry about his new team and all of their issues.

There was no grief.

There was no frustration and anger at all the changes in the world.

There was only calm.

His mind was so quiet, the voice in his head rang so loudly, echoing and filling every inch of his mind. He was so relaxed and calm. Calm and relaxed. It was like he was floating, body and soul. Just drifting in an endless sea of nothingness. It would be scary but there was a strong, warm, firm body keeping his body from floating away, and a soothing, clear voice keeping his mind tethered to the real world.

He hadn't been this calm before in his life. He'd always been so stressed and worried and angry and scared and grieving and frustrated and depressed. But now, all those bad feelings were just gone. The happy wasn't a mask for the sad, now. There was no sad. No bad. Just calm.

**So peaceful,**

He was.

He was so peaceful here in the quiet place. All that existed was him and the warm body holding him, the gentle hands caressing his own. It was so peaceful and calm and relaxed here. The gentle swipe of thumbs over his hands was so calming and soothing, he felt so relaxed and peaceful. He and this lovely person, Tony, his wonderful Tony, were just floating here in the nothing. Nothing could hurt them here. Nothing bad could happen here. It was all so lovely. He'd never felt this good before in his life. He loved this feeling so much. He wanted to feel like this always.

So soft and floaty and peaceful.

Oh, he had no idea Tony could make him feel this good. He should do this more often. So much more often.

**So warm,**

And...

Oh...

_Oh..._

Steve moaned loudly and writhed against Tony's body. Oh, he was _warm_!

That deep pervading, violent, stabbing cold was gone!

He'd been so cold for so long. He could feel it all the way down to his bones and nothing he did could warm him up. Ever since they'd thawed him from the ice, he'd been freezing. He could feel the ice down to his bones, freezing him and sending sharp stabbing pains throughout his whole body.

But it was gone now.

Tony made it go away.

For the first time since he'd crashed that damned plane, he was warm and comfortable and the horrible cold and pain was gone!

He felt _so good_.

He felt himself slipping deeper into the warm, peaceful, calm relaxation and his body felt warmer with every passing second.

He felt so good.

So good.

**You okay, Steve? How do you feel?**

"Mmmm... Good... So good... Tony... more... please..." he barely heard his own voice whisper desperately and he couldn't agree with it more.

More.

.oOo.

Steve blinked his eyes open and found himself staring up at the ceiling of Tony's workshop, the lights almost completely dimmed. He felt rough, calloused hands on his own, thumbs gently caressing the backs of his hands and he felt calm and relaxed. It took a few moments for the memories to come back and he pulled his hands away, pushing himself into a sitting position. He slowly shook his head and felt his scattered thoughts gather themselves back up. The lights slowly increasing back to full brightness.

He saw Tony sat on a chair next to the massage bed he was lying on. "Tony?"

"Hey Steve. How you feeling?"

Steve nodded his head slowly. "Yeah... good. I feel good. I'm... not cold."

Tony smiled slightly, looking pained and sad. "Yeah. It's some kind of psychological trauma. You weren't actually cold, but your mind was telling you that you were. You had a pretty strong reaction to me telling you that you felt warm while I was putting you under."

Steve thought for a few seconds before he remembered his last memory. "Oh, Lord. Tony I am so sorry. That was inappropriate of me. Goodness. Moaning like a wanton _whore_ like that. I'm _so sorry_. Turning your therapy into something perverse."

Tony shook his head. "No, Steve. It's fine. No need to worry. Like I said, strong reaction to easing of a deep psychological trauma." Tony gently clasped one of Steve's hands and gently rubbed his thumb across the back. "If you want, Tadashi has the security footage of this. You can access it at any time. Only you though. You would need to give permission to someone else before they could see it. Even me."

Steve nodded slowly, face bright red, and silently vowed to watch the footage later. He went to swing his legs off the bed and froze as his cock throbbed painfully where it was fully hard and pressing into his pants. He looked down at it in shock.

Tony grinned awkwardly. "Yeah, that happened to me the first few times. Apparently, it's a natural reaction to the sudden release of tension after a long time. Don't worry about it. I'm not judging."

Steve took a deep breath in and sat there a moment, enjoying the feeling. "I haven't gotten hard since... a week before I crashed that plane."

Tony's eyebrows shot up. "Woah, really? That's... a long time."

Steve nodded slowly, lost in the physical sensations. He felt so warm, relaxed and comfortable. His cock was hard and throbbing oh so wonderfully in his pants. His mind was calm and quiet for the first time in a long time.

He moved his left hand to cup his groin and blushed heavily at feeling another hand touch him first. "Oh, God. Tony, I'm so sorry!" He let go of Tony's hand and covered his face with both of his own. It didn't help that in that brief second of awkward contact, not even properly cupping him, his cock had hardened further.

It had now gone from being painfully aroused to unbearably so. Oh, he was going to cum!

Tony withdrew his hand as soon as Steve let go and blushed as he nervously laughed. "Heh, hey. No harm done. I'm going to go upstairs and grab a coffee. You... take your time and... Yeah. There's a bathroom through there with a shower I use when I get too covered in grease. You know, if you want to wash off the oil." He gestured to Steve's upper body, which was glistening slightly with the massage oils Tony had rubbed him down with. He pointed to a door off to the side where a door could be seen hidden by some storage racks, grabbed a coffee mug off his workbench and left the room.

Steve shook his head. No, he'd go to his room upstairs. He slowly swung his legs over the edge fully and couldn't hold back the loud moan that tore from his throat. He slowly pushed himself to his feet, gasping and moaning with every tiny movement. Oh, he wasn't going to make it upstairs.

He took one step towards the bathroom and suddenly pictured Tony stood in there, wet and naked, touching himself and-

Steve tensed, his breath freezing in his lungs as his body shook slightly. Several moments passed before he relaxed again, face burning. He grabbed his shirt from the back of the massage table then shuffled uncomfortably to the elevator and pressed the button for his room, watching the numbers climb.

God. Not only had he just shot off in his pants, without being touched, but he was still hard.

He was going to have a long hot shower, watch the security footage and never be able to look Tony in the eye again.

But, as he shuffled off to his bathroom, he did acknowledge that he felt better than he ever had.

Maybe there was something to this hypnotherapy thing after all.

.oOo.

Tony hummed to himself as he walked along back to his lab. Steve’s unexpectedly strong physical reaction aside, he thought that went quite well. Steve told him all about feeling cold all the time and Tony helped him through it before reassuring Steve that he wasn’t cold. He wasn’t frozen. He couldn’t still feel the ice in his bones.

Yes, Steve would be alright now. No more psychosomatic cold. Only real cold, when he was really cold.

Tony shuddered slightly at the thought of always feeling cold no matter what you do. He was dealing with that from his little adventure in space, but Tadashi was helping and honestly, he felt better for having helped Steve. He felt more useful.

He should talk to the rest of his team too. Maybe he could help them all a little? He’d have to be careful with Clint. The parallels between hypnosis and mind control are too big for the archer to be comfortable with it.

He’d get Natasha on board first and let her convince him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I don't really like it, but this is what I've got so far. I know where I want to go with this, and I have a few bullet points for the next few chapters, but I really have no idea what to do with this...
> 
> Sorry.


End file.
